"Ollie, this newsletter is the best thing you've ever written"
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Definition of illeism: Illeism is the act of referring to oneself in the third person instead of first person. Illeism is sometimes used in literature as a stylistic device. In real life usage, illeism can reflect a number of different stylistic intentions or involuntary circumstances.
Speaking about yourself in the third person – it's the ultimate sign of narcissism and self-grandeur, isn't it? I certainly find it incredibly amusing when I hear people talking in this way, but does it say something about the individual, beyond just that they have a high opinion of themselves?
There are plenty of historical examples of illeism, not least Julius Caesar. I draw many of my references from the sporting world, though, so there are a couple of current stars who jump out at me – Zlatan Ibrahimivoic and LeBron James.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, if you're not familiar with him, is Sweden's best-ever footballer. Not my words, but the words of the man himself.
"I'm probably the best Swedish player in history. What I've done, no one has done. Am I arrogant? It doesn't matter. I'm the best."
He also once told the King and Queen of Sweden, "now take care of Sweden until I return".
Zlatan is one of football's foremost proponents of illeism, and believe me, there's no shortage - from Pele to Maradona, Lothar Matthaus to Eric Cantona. Given that these names represent some of the game's greatest players, you might conclude that this is a symptom of the fame and idolisation that comes with transcending the world's most popular sport. Yet even among the five players I've mentioned, their personalities differ wildly.
For example, in Zlatan's case, you can sense a large dollop of irony in many of his famous quotes.
"I don't think that you can score as spectacular a goal as those of Zlatan in a video game - even though these games are very realistic these days."
On receiving an invitation for a trial at Arsenal from legendary manager Arsene Wenger as a 17-year old, his response was:
"Zlatan doesn't do auditions."
And when asked what he'd bought his partner for her upcoming birthday, he responded:
"Nothing. She already has Zlatan."
So, is this is a simple case of self-aggrandisement or is it something else?
Zlatan is a wind-up merchant and provocateur, hence his recent spat with LeBron James - basketball superstar, and, increasingly, a much-listened-to commentator on social issues. Zlatan 'advised' him to focus on unifying rather than dividing through his public statements. Now, this isn't a simple area on which to assert an opinion, of course – take this week's controversy over Basecamp’s decision to ban political discourse within their internal platform or company meetings, for example. However, one can't help but feel that Zlatan was indulging in some gentle prodding in the interests of publicity and mischievousness.
LeBron is, of course, a famous illeist himself, with observations such as:
"I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James, and what LeBron James was going to do to make him happy."
In his case, though, there is always a sense that every decision made is well-considered and in the interests only of improving his ability to be successful. Assuming this is true, the research backs up his approach - using your own name and other non-first person pronouns can help promote self-control and wise reasoning - there’s just no need to say it in public; or out loud at all.
Ethan Kross runs the Emotion and Self Control Lab at the University of Michigan (what a great name for a department!) and is the author of the book, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It. He's an expert on how to leverage self-talk - your internal dialogue - positively, rather than falling victim to the negative impact of the voice in your head.
The latter point is crucial here because typically it is the negative thoughts that tend to dominate. Even in good times, our inner critic rears its head, which is why we may often suffer from self-doubt and psychological patterns like imposter syndrome.
Over the past year, though, negative self-talk has become virulent for manifold reasons, contributing to a spike in mental health issues, as clinical levels of depression and anxiety affect up to 30% of the population.
While Kross makes very clear that it's not possible to rid the world entirely of depression and anxiety, it is possible to "turn down the temperature a bit when it's running too high."
The trick, according to Kross, is to utilise 'distanced self-talk' - which is where illeism comes in. Talking about yourself to yourself allows requires mentally stepping back and gaining perspective on an issue. The benefits are not just that it can help you calm down. It helps reframe problems that seem insurmountable and gives you more confidence.
You might combine this with 'temporal distancing', which projects your thoughts to the future, separating yourself from all-consuming short-term worries. Again, the distance can help both dampen anxiety and help improve performance.
Visualisation of success in this way is nothing new, but there are plenty of cynics out there, let’s be honest. Yet, if you ask many top athletes like LeBron James, this approach is critical for his preparation.
I'm willing to try anything once, so as someone who isn't short of negative self-talk, I'm going to give it a go.
"Ollie, this newsletter is the best thing you've ever written. Until the next one, and the one after that.”
Hang on a minute. I just remembered you’re not supposed to say it out loud. Never mind, I'll remember that for next time.
Have a nice weekend,
Ollie
Listen to more from Ethan Kross on the HBR Ideacast
Any Other Business:
You may have noticed that I listen to Danny Fortson's excellent Danny In The Valley podcast. I enjoyed his conversation this week with Gitlab's founder and CEO, Sid Sijbrandij. Gitlab is an old-timer when it comes to remote work, operating a fully distributed workforce since its founding in 2012. There is, therefore, much we can learn about how to incorporate this new way of working as the office becomes a viable proposition again.
One of the most notable observations from Sijbrandij was his concern about the viability of hybrid work for many businesses that don't carefully consider the effects of creating different classes of workers – those who are in the office regularly and those who aren't.
As you might expect, as the leader of a business without an office, Sijbrandij is a massive advocate for the idea that the future of work is geographically decentralised. He has some excellent, practical advice on managing this approach.
Gitlab generously shares their company handbook on their website and, within it, almost a decade's worth of experience and knowledge about remote best practice. However, for now, here are some of their rules for meetings, which he describes as "expensive'. I'd suggest reading the explanation behind each, but they represent Gitlab's philosophy to have meetings as infrequently as possible and maximise the value of every minute.
Make meeting attendance optional
Live doc meetings
Document everything live (yes, everything)
Cancel unnecessary recurring meetings
Use the right tools
Meetings are about the work, not the background
Avoid hybrid calls
Start on time, end on time
It's OK to look away
Say thanks and be creative
You can download their All-Remote Playbook HERE.
If you missed the link in the article above, check out Casey Newton’s analysis of the troubles at Basecamp this week. You can think of it as analogous to the European Super League debacle, but for company culture.
Here are 4 tools to help managers connect with remote teams by Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel from MIT Sloan Management Review.
Why Some Companies Stood by Workers When COVID-19 Battered Business. A new study finds that corporate decisions to either protect workers or lay them off had a lot to do with … compassion. Written by Edmund L. Andrews at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
How ‘The Tipping Point’ Spawned a New Kind of Business Book by Margaret Heffernan in Marker. “Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 bestseller was naive about the dark side of the ideas it championed, but taught readers that books about ideas could be cool”